NOTE Readings are in the textbook Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology: Volume 2 of The Cosmic Perspective by Bennett et al.
| Date | Number | Topic | Reading (Bennett et al.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 11 | 1 | Introduction: The scales of the universe. | Chapter 1 |
| 13 | 2 | Historical background. Og through Newton's Laws | Chapter 2: Section 2.6 Chapter 3: Sections 3.3 to 3.5 Chapter 5: Sections 5.1 to 5.3 |
| 18 | 3 | The "Four" Forces of Nature; Light and the electromagnetic spectrum | Chapter 6: Sections 6.1 to 6.3 |
| 20 | 4 | Thermal Radiation: the light from stars | Chapter 6: Section 6.4 |
| 25 | 5 | Spectral lines and spectroscopy: astronomical fingerprints | Chapter 6: Section 6.4 |
| 27 | 6 | Telescopes: powers, configurations, and instruments | Chapter 7: Sections 7.1 to 7.4 |
| February 1 | 7 | Telescope instruments, space astronomy | Chapter 7: Section 7.5 |
| 3 | 8 | Our Sun as a star | Chapter 15: Sections 15.1, 15.2, 15.4 |
| 8 | 9 | The inside of the Sun and the Case of the Missing Neutrino. | Chapter 15: Section 15.3 |
| 10 | -- | EXAM 1 | |
| 15 | 10 | Stars: colors, magnitudes, spectral classification | Chapter 16: Sect. 16.1 to 16.3 |
| 17 | 11 | The distance to the stars, the Doppler effect and stellar motions | Chapter 16: Section 16.2 Chapter 6: Section 6.5 |
| 22 | 12 | Stellar classification. The H-R diagram. Masses and binaries | Chapter 16: Section 16.4-16.5 |
| 24 | 13 | The Main Sequence: Stellar lifetimes, star clusters and stellar evolution. | Chapter 16: Section 16.5-6 |
| March 1 | 14 | Star formation. | Chapter 17: Section 17.1 & 17.2 |
| 3 | 15 | Stellar "middle age" and geriatrics | Chapter 17: Section 17.3 |
| 8 | 16 | Stellar death: white dwarfs, supernovae and neutron stars | Chapter 18: Section 18.1 to 18.3
Chapter 17: Section 17.4 |
| 10 | 17 | The Stellar Freak Show-Bizarre outcomes of stellar evolution. Black Holes | Chapter 18: Section 18.3-18.4 |
| SPRING BREAK | |||
| 22 | 18 | The Stuff between the stars; the Milky Way | Chapter 19: Sections 19.1-19.2 |
| 24 | -- | EXAM 2 | |
| 29 | 19 | The Milky Way Galaxy: a census | Chapter 19: Sections 19.3-19.5 |
| 31 | 20 | Galaxy types. The Milky Way's neighbors | Chapter 20: Sections 20.1-20.2 |
| April 5 | 21 | Distances to galaxies. Hubble's law and the Expanding Universe. | Chapter 20: Sections 20.3- 20.4 (start) |
| 7 | 22 | The Galaxy Freak Show: Quasars and other bizarre galaxies | Chapter 21: Section 21.3-21.5 |
| 12 | 23 | Dark Matter and large scale structure. | Chapter 22: Sections 22.1 - 22.5 |
| 14 | 24 | Cosmology I: Questions. The age of the Universe | Chapter 20: Section 20.4 (end) Chapter 23: Section 23.1 |
| 19 | 25 | Cosmology II: The Big Bang and its aftermath. | Chapter 23: Section 23.2-23.5 |
| 21 | 26 | Cosmology III: The past and future of the Universe. | Chapter 22: Sections 22.5-22.6 |
| 26 | 27 | Life in the Universe: I. | Chapter 24 |
| 28 | 28 | Life in the Universe: II. Conclusions | Chapter 24 |